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Showing results for tags 'Heinkel He-114'.
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Hi The old (from seventies) kit by Mach-2 of Heinkel He-114 is made in short- run technology. It has some kind of not good reputation. First look on models presented on fifferent forums in net nevertheless if they are done OOB or with some corrections usually reveals some problems with accuracy of shapes. The most obvious and frequently seen is error in distance between upper wing and fuselage. In model it is certainly too high. So certainly kits needs some corrections. The struts in model have to be shorted - that is for sure. I made a search of drawing in net and found on blueprint page one drawing ( http://drawingdatabase.com/heinkel-he-114/) withSwedish marings (here and later I will call it "Swedish drawings") , which looks very nice at first sight and some other much more basic. However and unfortunately - the nice looking Swedish plans did not survived comparison of some details with photos. There are several problems. On photos it is seen, the lower wing in real He-114 had straight, perpendicular to fuselage part of leading edge, and then becomes a rounded one at the end. The Swedish drawing show in all curved. In this case the shapes of model, compared to photos (http://pacificeagles.net/heinkel-he114/ ), looks OK. Second problem of this drawings are horizontal stabilizers. The model, if you glue it as it is, have trapezoidal stabilizers with almost symmetrical angles between fuselage and leading or trailing edges. The Swedish plan have the angles of this edges differnent. Moreover – the point of start of leading edges is moved forward about 2 mm in 1/72 scale. This is again not correct if you compare with photos, but here the shape model are also not OK. The stabilizers were not so much triangular. The other, not so detailed plans available in net suggest smaller correction – adding about 1 mm distance at leading edge to slope it a little backward. In this case the line between stable part of stabilizers and the elevators became straight if you look from bottom or from top. The rudder needs also correction. In model it is too pointy (or peaked) and the angle of rudder is to big (to much slopped forward). In Swedish drawings it is oposide - it is too vertical. Again – the correct shape is presented in those more ugly plans. Next is canopy. The most surprising is problem with interior of cockpit. It is detailed, but the details are mostly wrong. There are some photos available of cockpit http://www.aviarmor.net/aww2/_photo_aircraft/f_ger/he114/he114_cockpit1.jpg , http://www.aviarmor.net/aww2/_photo_aircraft/f_ger/he114/he114_cockpit2.jpg, http://www.aviarmor.net/aww2/_photo_aircraft/f_ger/he114/he114_cockpit3.jpg, http://www.aviarmor.net/aww2/_photo_aircraft/f_ger/he114/he114_cockpit4.jpg) Theyrevealed also a bit more trapezoidal in section look of canopy, different mounting of gun, a metal part above control panel of second cockpit etc. Going back to initial problem of struts and upper wing – the outside parts of upper wing have some dihedral (in model it is completely flat) and the struts between lower and upper wings have to be also a bit reshaped – the point of splitting them into two have to be lowered. Moreover, the mounting point of external struts (ie. those between lower and upper wings) have to be moved toward fuselage with changed angle. The shift on lower wing is some 4mm, on upper wing is twice more. The propeller seems to be too large also. That is for start. Perhaps there are other things to be corrected which I still overlooked . In my construction I will try to include all this needs of reshaping. In second post soon I will include some photos from construction - which started already. Cheers Jerzy-Wojtek